The Displaced Pillar on Plot 14
You are commissioned to prepare a cadastral resurvey of Plot 14 (0.2145 ha) in a government layout. The client shows you a Certificate of Occupancy and the registered plan dated 1994, which lists bearings and distances tied to three concrete pillars. On site you recover the SE and SW pillars in good condition and well set, but the NE pillar sits 0.42 m north-west of the position computed from the record bearings and distances. The adjoining owner of Plot 13 has occupied since 1998 and has built a 2.4 m block wall that follows the displaced pillar line, so the wall stands about 0.38 m inside the record boundary along a 26 m frontage. The wall predates the current owner's purchase. Your client needs a stamped plan for a mortgage within three weeks.
1. How do you establish which position defines the NE corner, and what field and record evidence do you gather before you decide?
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The governing principle is the hierarchy of boundary evidence: natural monuments, then original artificial monuments, then bearings and distances in the record, then occupation. Computed coordinates are the weakest evidence, not the strongest.
Field programme
- Recover and identify the two undisturbed pillars (SE, SW) and record their condition, type, and any witness marks or reference ties in the 1994 field notes.
- Search for other original pillars in the layout - Plot 12, Plot 13, and the street corners. If several of them show the same 0.42 m rigid-body offset in the same direction, the likely explanation is a datum or plan-computation error affecting a block, not a single disturbed monument. If only the NE pillar is displaced, it is a local disturbance.
- Look for the original peg, its broken concrete collar, or a back-peg witness mark under or beside the newer pillar, and check the pillar's weathering and concrete mix against the two good pillars.
- Measure the diagonal and the two adjacent boundary lengths from the good pillars to the NE pillar, and check against the record plan's dimensions, not just its coordinates.
- Record the wall line, the occupation, and any evidence of when the wall was built.
Decision logic
- If the NE pillar is proved to be the 1994 monument in its original position, the monument governs over the record bearings and distances, and the plan must be corrected accordingly, with a report of the discrepancy.
- If it is proved displaced (replacement, or moved by construction), the record position defines the legal boundary.
- Whichever you conclude, a registered surveyor reports the evidence and the discrepancy; the surveyor does not determine title. Where the evidence conflicts, refer the matter to the Registrar and the parties' legal advisers rather than choosing silently.
2. How should the 26-year occupation by the Plot 13 owner be treated on the plan and in your advice to your client?
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Occupation is evidence, not a survey decision.
- On the plan: show the record boundary and show the wall/occupation line as a separate, annotated feature. Never draw the fence as the boundary simply because it is there, and never suppress the discrepancy. Show the offset (0.38 m over 26 m) and reference it in the report so that the Registry, the bank and any future surveyor can see the issue.
- In advice: the encroachment is a defect in the title that the mortgage lender will care about. Long occupation does not, of itself, extinguish a registered right of occupancy, and where land is vested in the Governor under the Land Use Act, limitation statutes do not run against the State. Whether any right has been acquired by the occupier is a question of law for counsel, not a question the surveyor answers.
- Practical consequence: if the client proceeds, the plan and report should state that a boundary discrepancy exists and is unresolved. Certifying a clean, undisputed boundary would mislead the bank and the Registry and expose you to professional liability.
- Recommended step: advise the client to seek the adjoining owner's agreement to a joint re-establishment of the line, or to obtain legal advice, and to disclose the discrepancy to the lender before valuation.
3. What do you submit, and how do you handle the three-week deadline responsibly?
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Submission package
- Survey plan showing the record boundary, the recovered monuments with their condition, the occupation line, and the computed discrepancy.
- A technical report setting out the evidence for and against the original position of the NE pillar, the measurements taken, and the persons present.
- Field notes and the computation file, retained as the audit trail for the certification on the plan.
Deadline discipline The three-week deadline is a commercial constraint, not a technical one. The critical path is: search for other monuments and record plans (2–3 days), decision on monument status, drafting, and lodgement for vetting. This fits within three weeks if the evidence is available.
If the evidence is not resolvable in time, the honest options are:
- Lodge the plan with the discrepancy annotated and notified - the plan then tells the truth and the transaction can proceed subject to the lender's decision; or
- Ask the client for an extension.
What you must not do is compress the investigation and certify an unqualified boundary. Explain to the client in writing that the deadline is achievable only in option 1, and record that advice. Pressure from a client is not a defence before a disciplinary panel.